Starbucks leads the world's coffee chains with 40,990 stores, ahead of China's Luckin Coffee at 31,048 and Cotti Coffee at about 18,000.
Starbucks is the largest coffee shop chain in the world by number of locations, with 40,990 stores as of 28 September 2025. Luckin Coffee is second with 31,048 at the end of 2025, and Cotti Coffee third, claiming more than 18,000 in early 2026. The ranking uses total worldwide stores, company-operated plus franchised or licensed, from each company's latest published or stated count.
Most of the recent growth in coffee chains has come from China. Starbucks is still the largest chain, with 40,990 stores, but Luckin Coffee passed 31,000 at the end of 2025 and two other low-price Chinese chains, Cotti Coffee and Mixue's Lucky Cup, now have more stores than any Western chain except Starbucks and Dunkin'. This list ranks coffeehouse chains by total stores worldwide, company-operated and franchised or licensed combined, using the latest count each company has published or stated. Only Starbucks, Luckin Coffee and Mega MGC Coffee publish exact year-end counts; the rest are company statements or reported milestones, marked approximate.
Starbucks ended fiscal 2025 (28 September 2025) with 40,990 stores, after closing a net 107 in the final quarter under a restructuring plan. The United States (16,864) and China (8,011) together account for 61% of them.
Luckin Coffee ended 2025 with 31,048 stores (20,234 self-operated and 10,814 partnership stores), up 39% in a year after 8,708 net openings. Almost all are in China, with small numbers in Singapore, Malaysia and the United States.
Cotti Coffee, founded in 2022 by former Luckin executives, claimed more than 18,000 stores in early 2026, most of them in China. The claim counts shop-in-shop and convenience-store outlets, and an August 2026 industry tally found 15,599; either figure keeps it third.
Dunkin', owned by the private Inspire Brands, was reported in March 2025 to have more than 13,200 restaurants in almost 40 markets. Inspire publishes no audited year-end count, so the figure is approximate and older than most on this list.
Lucky Cup, the budget coffee brand of Mixue Group, passed 10,000 stores in late 2025, up from about 4,600 at the end of 2024. Mixue does not break out an exact year-end count for the brand, so 10,000 is a threshold, not a precise total.
Tim Hortons, owned by Restaurant Brands International, says it has more than 5,700 restaurants. About 4,586 of them are in Canada and the United States; the rest are run by international partners in markets such as the Gulf states, the Philippines and the United Kingdom.
Café Amazon, run by Thailand's PTT Oil and Retail, was reported in October 2025 to operate more than 5,000 outlets, most of them at PTT petrol stations in Thailand, with several hundred abroad.
Mega MGC Coffee, a South Korean budget chain, reported 4,016 stores for 2025, up from 3,360 a year earlier; 98.8% are franchised. It is the only chain from rank 3 down with an exact year-end figure.
Coca-Cola-owned Costa Coffee has about 4,000 coffee shops worldwide, roughly 2,700 of them in the UK and Ireland. Costa and Mega MGC are effectively level.
Ediya Coffee, long South Korea's largest coffee franchise by store count, was reported in April 2026 to have more than 3,000 locations. Reported figures for Ediya conflict (from about 2,500 franchise stores to over 4,000), so its place is the least certain on the list; Compose Coffee, at about 2,900, is just behind.
| # | Name | Home country | Count as of | Count basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Starbucks | United States | 28 September 2025 | Company-reported |
| 2 | Luckin Coffee | China | 31 December 2025 | Company-reported |
| 3 | Cotti Coffee | China | Early 2026 | Approximate (company claim) |
| 4 | Dunkin' | United States | Early 2025 | Approximate (latest reported) |
| 5 | Lucky Cup | China | December 2025 | Approximate (milestone) |
| 6 | Tim Hortons | Canada | 2024 | Approximate (company statement) |
| 7 | Café Amazon | Thailand | October 2025 | Approximate (reported) |
| 8 | Mega MGC Coffee | South Korea | End of 2025 | Company-reported |
| 9 | Costa Coffee | United Kingdom | 2025 | Approximate |
| 10 | Ediya Coffee | South Korea | April 2026 | Approximate (reported) |
Chains are ranked by total worldwide stores (company-operated plus franchised or licensed). Exact company-reported counts: Starbucks Q4 FY2025 results (28 September 2025), Luckin Coffee Q4 2025 results (31 December 2025) and Mega MGC Coffee's reported 2025 total (4,016). These match the counts used on our fast-food chains list. All other figures are approximate, because the companies are private or do not publish brand-level counts: Cotti Coffee (company claim of more than 18,000, early 2026, including shop-in-shop and convenience-store outlets), Dunkin' (more than 13,200, reported March 2025), Lucky Cup (passed 10,000, December 2025), Tim Hortons (more than 5,700, company statement), Café Amazon (more than 5,000, October 2025), Costa Coffee (about 4,000, 2025) and Ediya Coffee (more than 3,000, April 2026). Approximate counts are entered at the stated threshold. Eligible chains are those whose main business is coffee: bakery and doughnut-led chains are excluded except Dunkin' and Tim Hortons, which are commonly classed as coffee chains; tea and ice-cream brands and coffee counters inside other restaurants (such as McCafé) are excluded. Ranks 8 to 10 (Mega MGC, Costa, Ediya) are close and rest on approximate figures; Compose Coffee (about 2,900) is 11th. No exact ties occur.
Starbucks, with 40,990 stores at the end of its 2025 fiscal year (28 September 2025). Luckin Coffee is second with 31,048 stores at the end of 2025.
Luckin Coffee, with almost all of its 31,048 stores in China. Starbucks had 8,011 stores in China at the end of fiscal 2025, fewer than Luckin, Cotti Coffee and Lucky Cup.
Private companies such as Inspire Brands (Dunkin') and Cotti Coffee do not publish audited year-end store counts, and groups such as Mixue and Restaurant Brands International do not always break counts out by brand. Where only a company statement or a reported milestone exists, this list uses that figure and marks it approximate.
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